1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus which will to detect any defective glove for its removal and more particularly to an apparatus which will inflate the gloves to inherently facilitate its donning while also provide a means of detecting voids in the gloves for their elimination for preventing the transmission of infectious and deadly organisms.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Through the years, health care workers and their patients are becoming more concern as to the sanitary conditions of their working environment. As more research indicates, infectious and deadly organisms can easily be transmitted by way of bodily fluid. To prevent the spread of disease, such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), health care workers and the like will usually wear elastic gloves. These gloves will act as a barrier and will offer protection to the wearer and the patients.
In a typical day, a health care worker, such as nurses, doctors, surgeons, dentists, dental hygienist, or the like, will wear a different and new pair of gloves per patient. Ordinarily, the health care worker will scrub down with an antibacterial soap, dry their hands quickly and then place the gloves thereon, hoping for contamination free gloves. Since these gloves generally assumed a "skin tight" fit when worn, they are inherently difficult to put on, especially if the hand and/or glove is damp. Additionally, adding to the frustrations, air pockets may form at the finger tips requiring several adjustments to release this trapped air. Without an apparatus to assist the user, it is seen that it can be tedious, irritating and time consuming for the donning these gloves.
Once the glove is on, there is no way of indicating if it has any tiny voids in which contaminated fluids can pass therethrough. To avoid this problem some health care professionals will don two gloves for each hand. This extra glove adds to the time wasted for donning the supplemental glove and adds unnecessary cost for the health care professional, insurance companies and patient.
Health care providers are only a few individuals who utilize gloves for protection. Other individuals and professions include, but are not limited to, scientists, researchers, food preparation personnel, and the like, all who recognize the need for protection from products and/or worker contamination.
Accordingly, efforts have been made to aid and assist the health care provider during the procedure of donning gloves. Such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,308 issued to Sullivan. In this patent, there is disclosed an apparatus which operates without internal or external energy sources. The apparatus comprises a cylinder which receives a glove. A tube couples the cylinder to fluid reservoir. The cylinder further includes a one-way check valve which is mounted so that its air inlet communicates with the interior of the cylinder and its air outlet communicates with the ambient environment. For utilizing this device, the user places a glove in the cylinder and makes a fist and quickly inserts and removes the fist from the glove. This will displace the air below the glove forcing it out through the valve. The glove should be in an expanded position due to a partial vacuum which exists below the glove. This apparatus, though useful, does suffer some shortcomings. Since the user must insert a fist into the glove for activating a vacuum, an individual may apply too much pressure and force, inherently causing the glove to be completely removed from the cylinder, an error which is not only undesirable, but irritating as well. Additionally, for those who have large hands, this apparatus may be cumbersome and difficult to master, since their hands, formed as fists, could not properly enter the non-inflated glove. Further, it is questionable if a defective glove can be detected with such a slight vacuum, something that is a necessity in the medical field. In addition, the structure and operation of this device only allows the user to inflate one glove at a time. Such a configuration may require the individual to use the gloved hand for donning the second glove onto the second hand. Since it is desirable for the gloves to remain contact free after leaving the vacuum, the arrangement could contaminate the first glove used in assisting the attachment/release of the second glove.
Yet another device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,272 issued to Vlock. Vlock discloses a device having a pair of chambers for receiving a glove for each hand. A pump is used to cause a vacuum to exist in the cylinders once the gloves are attached thereto. Though this device is successful, this apparatus is complex as well as cumbersome for utilization. For example, some switches are located within the cylinders, requiring a sterile hand to activate these mechanical devices. Sterilization of the apparatus is virtually impossible since the chambers are at least double or tripled walled. Utilization of the apparatus would require several hours of training and may not offer the best solution, especially in environments where sterilization if of the utmost importance.
Hence it is seen that none of these previous efforts provide the benefits intended with the present invention. Additionally, prior techniques do not suggest the present inventive combination of component elements as disclosed and claimed herein. The present invention achieves its intended purposes, objectives and advantages over the prior art device through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, which is simple to use, with the utilization of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, assemble, test and by employing only readily available material.